PHARMACOGNOSY

&
PLANT CHEMISTRY
CLASSIFICATION OF
DRUGS OF NATURAL
ORIGIN
OBJECTIVES
I. To define Pharmacognosy.
II. To recognize the essential people that contributes to the history of
pharmacognosy.
III. To identify the different materials being used as references for the
development of the pharmaceutical field.
IV. To develop their knowledge on the biosynthesis of plant-derived
compounds and how they are processed in industry to become drugs used
in our community today.
 OUTLINE
I. Crude Drugs
II. Preparation of Crude Drugs
III. Animal Drugs
IV. Evaluation and Classification of Drugs
CRUDE DRUGS
CRUDE DRUGS
• are plants or animals, or their parts w/c after collection are
subjected only to drying or making them into transverse or
longitudinal slices or peeling them in some cases
• vegetable or animal drugs that consist of natural substances that
have undergone only the processes of collection and drying

I. Extractive - mixture of substances/substance extracted

II. Marc - undissolved portion of a drug that remains after the
extraction
III. Menstruum - solvent
CRUDE DRUGS VS. CRUDE

• natural product and has • vegetable or animal drugs

not been improved by that consists of natural
shredding, grinding, substances that have
chipping, distilling, undergone only the
evaporating, extracting, processes of collection
artificial mixing. and drying.
• Drugs are obtained from a specific part of the entire plant
itself:
• Example:
HABITAT/GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE
• Region in which the plant or animal yielding
the drug grows
• Drugs are collected in all parts of the world.
• Does not indicate the actual location source
of the plant.
INDIGENOUS VS. NATURALIZED
INDIGENOUS PLANTS NATURALIZED PLANTS
• plants that grow in their native • plants that grow in a foreign
countries. land or in a locality other
• Ex: Pinus palustris than their native homes.
• Ex: Datura stramonium
CULTIVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS
• Cultivated Medicinal Plants- have been propagated for centuries in
China, India Europe and many other lands
• Factors affecting cultivation:
🡪 Altitude, temperature, rainfall, day length & light, soil, soil fertility,
fertilizers & pests.
🡪 Nutrients have the ability to enhance & reduce the production of
secondary metabolites
COMMERCIAL ORIGIN OF DRUGS
• refers to the production and its channels of trade.
PREPARATION OF CRUDE DRUGS
1. Collection
2. Harvesting
3. Drying
• A. Curing - Special Drying
4. Garbling
1. COLLECTION
• getting samples to determine the
• quality
• ensuring the true natural source
• of the drug
• improper collection might result to
complete or partial substitution.
2. HARVESTING
- Varies with each drug produced and
with the pharmaceutic requirements of
each drug
• mode of harvesting:
1. Hand labor
2. Mechanical
2. HARVESTING: LIFTERS/DIGGERS
2. HARVESTING: SEED STRIPPERS
ARTIFICIAL DRYING
a. Tray dryers- drugs w/ no volatile
oils, need deactivation of enzymes
b. Vacuum dryers- drugs sensitive
to higher temperature ex. Tannic
acid & digitalis leaves
c. Spray dryers- drugs w/c are
highly sensitive to atmospheric
conditions
3. DRYING
• prevents microbial contamination
• inhibits enzyme and other chemical
rxns
• facilitates milling
• convenience
• by the sun (natural) or by artificial
heat
• Regulation of airflow
3. DRYING: CURING
✔“Curing” - special method of drying
✔involves other processes such as sweating or fermentation to
bring about changes in the constituent

✔Example:
Vanilla - sweating
Cascara Sagrada
 4. GARBLING
• Garbling- final step in the preparation
of crude drug.
• Removal of extraneous matter
5. PACKAGING, STORAGE AND
PRESERVATION
• Packaging: depends on the final
disposition of the drug
• - Storage and Preservation: high
degree of drug quality
• Example:
– Aloe & balsam: Drums
– Leaf & Herb: usually baled into solid
compact mass
5. PACKAGING, STORAGE AND
PRESERVATION
Proper Storage: Prevention of insect attacks:
• Protection of drugs against: • 1. Expose the drug to 65 ̊celsius
• Moisture • 2. Fumigation
• Oxidation • 3. Add a drop of chloroform or
• Insect attacks CCl4
• Animal destruction
ANIMAL DRUGS
• Are produced from wild or
domesticated animals.
• Wild animals must be hunted
(whale, musk deer) or fished for
(cod and halibut).
• If insects: mostly from wild insects
• ex. Cantharidin
- aphrodisiac
- for warts
EVALUATION OF DRUGS
• done to maintain QUALITY and
CLASSIFY the drugs according to its METHODS:
active constituent. A. Organoleptic
I. Purity B. Microscopic
C. Pharmacologic
I. Adulteration
D. Chemical Eval
I. sophistication E. Physical Eval
II. Admixture
II. Substitution
III. Spoilage
IV. Deterioration
V. Inferiority
REASONS FOR EVALUATION OF CRUDE
DRUGS
🡪 Biochemical variation in the drug

🡪 effect of treatment and storage of drugs

🡪 adulteration and substitution

1. ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION
• “impression on the organs” -
appearance, odor, taste,
sound or snap of its fracture
and feelings
• Example:
– Acacia
– Ginger & Capsicum
2. MICROSCOPIC EVALUATION
- essential to the study of adulterants (e.g insects, animal feces, mold,
fungi etc.) in powedered plant and animal drugs

Example:
Lignin - stains red w/ a drop of phloroglucinol and conc. HCL
mucilage - pink with rhuthenium red
starch & hemicellulose - blue with N/50 iodine solution
3. BIOLOGICAL/BIOASSAYS
• Assays on animals and living organism indicates the strength of a
drug
🡪 To determine pharmacological activity, potency and toxicity
🡪 3 Methods of Bioassay:
1. Toxic- uses animals
2. Symptomatic- animals
3. Organ- uses isolated organ or tissues
ANIMALS USED IN BIOASSAYS
• Guinea Pigs -
• Chicken -
• Pigeon -
• Cat -
• Mice -
4. CHEMICAL EVALUATION
• Active constituents of many natural drugs have been determined by chemical
methods (assays) to determine the official potency
🡪Chemical methods- isolation, purification and identification of active
constituents
🡪 Qualitative chemical tests- Identification Test (I.T) of alkaloids, glycosides
and tannins
🡪 Quantitative Chemical Tests- acid value (resins, balsams), ester value
(balsams, volatile oils), acetyl value (volatile oils), etc.
🡪 Chemical Assays- for alkaloid, resin, volatile oil, glycosides, vitamins etc.
🡪 Instrumental Analysis- analyse the chemical groups of phytoconstituents
using chromatographic and spectroscopy
 5. PHYSICAL EVALUATION
- Application is rare but extensively applied to the active principles of drugs such as alkaloids,
volatile oils, fixed oils and others
🡪 solubility- ex. solubility of colophony in light petroleum and balsam of Peru insolution of
chloral hydrate
🡪 optical rotation
🡪 refractive index
🡪 Specific gravity
🡪 Viscosity
🡪 Melting point
🡪 Moisture content
CLASSIFICATION OF
DRUGS OF NATURAL
ORIGINS
🡪 Drugs of natural origin have been used as the curative agents and
even in this age of scientific discoveries
🡪 Crude Drugs are substances either used directly or indirectly as a
drug which have not been changed or modified in its chemical
composition
2 Categories
1. Organized crude drugs
2. Unorganized crude drugs
 ORGANIZED CRUDE DRUGS
🡪 Consist of the cellular organization in the form of anatomical
features
🡪 mostly from plant sources
🡪 almost all of the morphological plant parts or the entire plant itself
can be called organized drugs

Ex. Cinchona bark, Sandalwood, Quassia wood, Rauwolfia roots,

Nux vomica Seeds
UNORGANIZED DRUGS
Do not have the morphological and anatomical organization
🡪 ultimate source remains the minerals and the constituent itself
Ex. Products like plant exudates as gums, plant lattices of opium, aloe juices,
dried extracts of black and pale catechu, agar, alginic acid, essential oils, fixed
oils, fats and waxes obtained from vegetable or animal sources
CLASSIFICATION OF
PLANT DRUGS
• ALPHABETICAL
• MORPHOLOGIC
• TAXONOMIC
• PHARMACOLOGIC
• CHEMICAL
1. ALPHABETICAL
🡪 simplest way
🡪 arranged in alphabetical order of their Latin and English names
(common names), vernacular names
🡪 ex. Pharmacopoeias, dictionaries, reference books

1. Indian Pharmacopoeia 4. USP & NF

2. British Pharmacopoeia 5. EP
3. BHP
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
🡪 Easy and quick to use 🡪 No relationship between
previous and successive drug
entries
🡪 No repetition of entries and
is devoid of confusion

🡪 System location, tracing and 🡪 ex. Acacia, benzoin,

addition of drug entries is cinchona, dill, ergot, fennel
easy
2. MORPHOLOGICAL
• Plants are grouped according to structure.

Organized drugs - obtained from direct

plant parts

Unorganized drugs - prepared from

plants by some intermediate physical
processes such as incision, drying or
extraction with a solvent and not
containing any cellular plant tissues
ORGANIZED DRUGS UNORGANIZED DRUGS
Woods: quassia, sandalwood Dried latex: opium; papain
Leaves: digitalis, eucalyptus, Dried juice: aloe, kino
mint, senna Dried Extracts: agar, alginate
Barks: arjuna, ashoka, cascara Waxes: beeswax, spermaceti,
Flowering Parts: clove, saffron Gums: acacia, guar gum,
Fruits: Amla, Anise, Bael, Resins: benzoin, colophony
Capsicum, Coriander Volatile Oil: turpentine, anise
Seeds: bitter almond, black Fixed Oils & Fats: arachis, castor
mustard Animal Products: bees wax, gelatin
Roots & Rhizomes: dioscorea Fossil Organism & Minerals: bentonite,
Plants & Herbs: Ergot, ephedra kaolin
Hairs & Fibres: cotton, hemp
 Advantages Disadvantages
🡪 more helpful to identify and 🡪 No corelation of chemical
detect adulteration constituents with the
therapeutic actions
🡪 more convenient for
practical study especially 🡪 Repetition of drugs or
when the chemical nature of plants occurs
the drug is not clearly
understood
3. TAXONOMICAL
Large number of plant families have
certain distinguishing characteristics
that permit drugs from these families
to be studied at one time
• Ex. Drugs consisting of cremocarp
fruits (anise, fennel, caraway)
Umbelliferae
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

🡪Helpful for studying 🡪Does not correlate in

evolutionary developments between the chemical
constituents and bilogical
activity of the drugs
4. PHARMACOLOGICAL
- Therapeutic use of drugs
• ex. Cascara sagrada, Senna, Podophyllum and Castor oil
SI Pharmacological Example
No. Category
1. Drug acting on GIT
Bitter Cinchona, quassia, gentian
Carminative Fennel, cardamon, mentha
Emetic Ipecac
Antiamoebic Kuchi, ipecac
Laxative Agar, isabgol, banana
Purgative Senna, castor oil
Cathartic senna

2. Drug acting on Respiratory Sys.

Expectorant Vasaka, liquorice, ipecac
Antitussive Opium (codeine)
bronchodilators Ephedra, tea
 ADVANTAGE DISADVANTAGE
🡪 can be used for suggesting 🡪 Drugs having different action on
substitutes of drugs, if they the body get classified separately
are not available at a in more than one group that
particular place or point of causes ambiguity and confusion
time
 5. CHEMICAL
Therapeutic of drugs are based on chemical
constituents and is the preferred method of
study
• Most drugs contain a variety of constituents,
some therapeutically active, others chemically
active and still others antagonistic to each
other
• Example: Steroidal alkaloids
 ADVANTAGE DISADVANTAGES

🡪 Popular approach for 🡪 Ambiguities arise when

phytochemical studies particular drugs possess a
number of compounds
belonging to different groups
of compound
 🡪 relies on the chemical similarity of a
taxon, i.e it is based on the existence of
relationship between constituents in
various plants
🡪 there are certain types of chemical
constituents that characterize certain
CHEMOTAXONOMICAL classes of plants
🡪 Latest system of classification that gives
CLASSIFICATION more scope for understanding the
relationship between chemical
constituents, their biosynthesis and their
possible action
Ex. Tropane alkaloids occur among the
members of Solanaceae
 🡪 Application or the utility of
serology in solving the
taxonomical problems
🡪 study of antigen-antibody
reaction
SEROTAXONOMICAL 🡪 antigen- substances that
CLASSIFICATION stimulate the formation of
antibody
🡪 antibody- protein molecule
produced by plasma cells in the
immune system